The Melbourne Cup Carnival kicks off on the Saturday before Melbourne Cup Day with Victoria Derby Day and concludes the following Saturday with Emirates Stakes Day.

Along with Melbourne Cup Day on the Tuesday, which attracts in excess of 100,000 spectators at the track, race fans and punters are also treated to another midweek event with Crown Oaks Day for the ladies on the Thursday.

A total of ten Melbourne Cup Day races will take place this year with the 2017 Melbourne Cup the sole Group 1 event on the program.

Other highlights on the Melbourne Cup Day schedule however include a Group 3 event and as many as four Listed features.

The premier event is of course the ‘race that stops a nation’, the Melbourne Cup, which runs as Flemington Race 7 at 3:00pm (AEDST) every Melbourne Cup Day.

The 2017 Melbourne Cup Trophy is valued at an incredible $175,000 this year and is crafted, as usual, by Hardy Brothers Jewellers. Made from 34 separate pieces of gold, the trophy is crafted by hand, with over 200 hours spent beating the gold.

Remember you don’t have to wait until Melbourne Cup Day to place your bets on the world’s richest handicap as Ladbrokes.com.au have the hottest Melbourne Cup pre-nomination odds open now!

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An impressive Group 1 win across the Tasman over the weekend has the Te Akau Racing stable confident ahead of a 2017 Caulfield Cup bid back down under with the autumn’s Rosehill Guineas winner Gingernuts. The now four-year-old son of Iffraaj resumed at Hastings on September running fifth to Close Up in the Group 1…

Luckless staying import Vengeur Masque is targeting the 2017 Melbourne Cup this spring via a hopeful Caulfield Cup run after missing out on the ‘race that stops a nation’ by one spot last season. The Monsun gelding finished No. 25 on the Melbourne Cup ballot in 2016, just failing to gain a run in the…

Aidan O’Brien’s Irish St Leger winner Order Of St George has been allocated the 58kg top weight for the Melbourne Cup 2017, handicaps for which were announced by Racing Victoria today. The Galileo entire is one of 31 international raiders among the 140 official nominations heading towards a run in the iconic Group 1 $6.2…

European jumps horse Max Dynamite is one of three possible spring contenders down under for English owner Rich Ricci with the veteran still being considered for a Melbourne Cup 2017 bid. The Great Journey gelding travelled to Victoria in 2015 and finished brave runner-up behind Darren Weir’s $101 upset winner Prince Of Penzace in the ‘race that stops a nation’. Racing as an eight-year-old in Australia,…